5/31/10 - Memorial Day - Rest Day

245.2

Probably take today as another off day, or possibly an active rest day. Stoneway has different hours for Memorial Day (classes at 12pm and 1pm but no evening sessions) and so that, along with the fact that I'm feeling a bit off today, has me thinking that this is what I'll do. The posted WOD looks hard, but doable, but I really don't feel like doing it.

This is what Scott posted:

"Daniel"
50 pull-ups
Run 400 meters
21 thrusters, 95 lbs
Run 800 meters
21 thrusters, 95 lbs
Run 400 meters
50 pull-ups

Update: It's about 8:15 pm and I'm officially glad I took a third rest day. Besides the fact that I just wasn't feeling right this morning, I can tell my body is happy I left it alone again. I'm starting to think that this is probably a good thing to do every few weeks, especially at my age. In fact, I'm thinking I should plan on taking a 3-day break every 3 weeks and maybe a 5-day break every six weeks. This is if I were actually programming a training calendar for myself that far out, which I'm not. But, I may get there soon.

Food:
2 pieces of Pizza
Salad
Lamb & Beef Gyro
Two single tall lattes

5/30/10 - Rest Day

245.6

Rest Day - may turn into active resting if I decide to head over to LAF in the evening. Feeling a little achy in my left shoulder.


Food:
Scrambled Eggs with cheese 
Two pieces of rotisserie chicken
Two mighty-oh donuts
candy bar
1 piece of fried snapper

5/29/10 - Rest Day

246.2

Rest Day


Food:
Yogurt Mix

5/28/10 - Clean & Jerks and a vicious B-Day WOD

246.4

Strength:
Clean & Jerks 5/5/3/3/3
135/140/155/160/165

The real limiting factor here was the power clean. At 165, I was just barely getting the bar up. To be clear, at both 160 and 165, the jerk was pretty tough as well. But, I can tell I just need to do a few more workouts to get the strength up for those. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I can jerk 200 in a few weeks.

Next two C & J workouts should probably be 5 X 5 at #155 and 5 X 5 at #160. Also need to do Power Cleans - add those in the mix somehow with the snatches, squats, deadlifts, and bench press.

Metcon:
Kim and Crystal's Birthday WOD
26 knees to elbows
43 Double Unders
26 Overhead Squats
43 Sprawls (burpee without the pushup)
Time: ~27:50

Note: even Andy was having a tough time with this one.

Food:
Yogurt Mix
Indian Food
Grande Latte
Yogurt Mix
6 or 7 carrots w/hummous
3 pieces of cheese
El Diablo w/sweet potato fries and coleslaw
Two drinks

5/27/10 - Active Rest Day

247.4

Active Rest:
1 mile run
2000m row
some light kettlebell swings

Food:
Yogurt mix
Chicken Florentine Soup
Chicken Caesar Salad (small)
3 pieces of cheese and hummous


 

Benchmark WODs

Here is a list of potential benchmark WODs that I should try to get in at some point soon:

3/18
100m Sprints
Hang Cleans (#85)
20 situps
8 rounds for time
time: 19 minutes flat

3/30 - "Cindy"
5 Pullups (probably used blue and red)
10 Pushups
15 Squats
AMRAP 20 minutes
Finished with 11 1/3 rounds

4/2
Pullups (probably used blue and red)
Box Jumps
Situps
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Time: 10:08

4/19 "Fran:
21-15-9
Thrusters (#95)
Pullups (probably used blue and red)
9:11 at #65

5/3
15 Hang Cleans
15 Burpees
3 rounds for time
10:44 at #105 (RX #135)

5/7
15 Clean & Jerks (#95)
400m Run
AMRAP 20 minutes
3 1/2 (got through 13 C & J's before running out of time)

5/18 "Grace"
30 Clean & Jerks (#135)
9:44 (Regressed to #115 after about 10 reps)

5/26/10 - Power Snatches & Metcon (back ext., situps, burpees)

245.0

WOD:
Power Snatches
3-3-3-3-3
105-115-115-115-115
1 rep at #125

The pattern at #115 is that the first two reps would be fine and then I would struggle on the last one. The way to go here might be to back off and try to do high reps at #110, like 8 X 5 or something like that. That should actually be doable after today. The other way to go would be to go heavy and just try for 120 or 125 next time. My experience and my gut tells me that I should work at a weight where I can execute the lift properly, which means going down to #110. I think that's the right move. 

then:

AMRAP 12 Minutes
10 Back Extensions
10 Situps
5 Burpees

10 1/3 rounds - made it through a complete round of back extensions and six situps before running out of time. Definitely one of my better metcons.  Burpees are so much easier now than even 8 weeks ago. I credit a lot of the improvement to the extra strength work I've been doing. My body is just flat out stronger AND leaner AND more flexible, and as a consequence of that, I'm able to put more into the metcons and at the same time get more out of them.

It'll be interesting to see where I am when my body weight gets down to 235 at the end of June and then 220 later on, presumably sometime in the fall. 2010 is really my year for getting this shit straightened out.

Food:
Yogurt, walnuts, blueberries
Salad Bar
1 Fish Taco

5/25/10 - "Murph"

247.0

WOD:
"Murph:
1 mile run
100 pullups
200 pushups
300 air squats
1 mile run

scaled to:
800m Run
50 Pullups (blue band)
100 Pushups
150 Squats
800m Run


time: 28:27
800m time: 3:56 for the first split


I've written about this workout before. As RX'd, I estimate it will take me anywhere from 45 - 50 minutes. My preference is to scale the middle part, ideally by cutting it in half, and keep the 1 mile runs. We'll see what options Scott throws out there. I would actually prefer to do this late in the summer, when my weight is down another 15-20 pounds.

I also question if doing 100 pullups is the best move right now. My view is that it would be better to do 20 pullups, but use the lightest band possible, like one red band. As it stands, minimally I will have to use the blue and red bands combined, and it will probably still take me 7-8 minutes. 

Update: Scaled to 1/2 the RX. Still a heck of a workout. Used a single blue band. It would be interesting to try this again at the end of June and then again at the end of August. By end of August, I should be down to a single red band on the pullups, or possibly no band at all.

Food:
Yogurt, walnuts, blueberries
No morning latte
1 cup of coffee
Ooba's skirt steak burrito

Got a ton of sleep last night. Interesting to see if that helps my performance today.

5/24/10 - Deadlifts

245.0

WOD:
Deadlifts
5/5/3/3/3/1

Set 1: 5 reps at 295
Set 2: 5 reps at 315
Set 3: 1 rep at 325
Set 4: failed at 330
Set 5: failed at 330
Set 6: 1 rep at 330 (PR)

7 minute rest

10 minutes to reach max height box jump Didn't participate in the box jump

I wrote yesterday that I want to try and get a heavy snatch workout in today. If I can get to the early class, I should be able to get the snatches in while the 6 pm class is warming up. It'll be interesting to see where I am with the deadlifts now. Should be able to lift at least #315 on the one and maybe a bit more if we keep going.

Update: didn't get to the snatches

Food:
Yogurt, walnuts, blueberry mix
Grande Latte
Salad Bar
1 small piece of chocolate
3 bites of trail mix
2 carne asada tacos

Went to sleep at something like 10 pm. I really should do that more often.

5/23/10 - Rest Day

246.4

WOD:
Tabata Jump Rope
Tabata Situps
Tabata Air Squats

Then:

Row 1,000m at 60% effort
5 X 250m sprints with 1 minute rest between sets

Strength:
Back Squats 5 X 5 at #190
Bench Press 5 X 5 at #200

Food:
Two Pork Tacos
Tall Latte
Ribeye Steak
1 spoonful of peanut butter
2 spoons of ice cream
1 piece of chocolate
Yogurt, walnuts, blueberries

Ran out of time and couldn't make it to LAF today as planned. Maybe if I was an early riser I could have made it happen, but truthfully, I am okay with another rest day. Five days in a row last week was fine, but not really optimal. My performance was not great on Friday and I was pretty stiff and sore on Saturday. It seems like forcing myself to take rest days has worked out the best in terms of results and how I feel on the weekends. I have to remember that I'm in this for the long haul. Missing one day during the week is not the end of the world.

Goal for this week is to do a heavy snatch workout tomorrow and then a high rep snatch workout later in the week, Thursday or Friday. Unfortunately, I see that when I did Power Snatches and Power Cleans on 5/14, I didn't record the loads. The Power Cleans I believe were #135 or #145. The snatches, if I remember correctly, I handled #115 quite easily but struggled on #125. Since the goal is strength, I should try to do #125 this time for multiple reps, probably 5 X 3, and then make a couple of attempts at #135. Before attempting Isabel, I need to have my Power Snatch up to at least #165, which I think I can do by late June.

5/22/10 - Rest Day

246.6

WOD:
Rest Day

Nice to see the weight keep ticking down, if ever so slowly. It would be nice to get at least one reading next week under 245. Should be doable. 235 by the end of June? Sub-230 by August 10? Based on today's readings, that's 16.6 pounds in roughly 12 1/2 weeks. Since I seem to lose actual weight extremely slowly, that will be a tough one. But, if I can hit the 235 milestone at the end of June, then I should be able to make it. Something else working in my favor is that my intensity on the met-cons seems to have improved, which should help me burn more fat. As I continue to work on squats and deadlifts every week, and now bench press and shoulders, my ratio of lean muscle mass to fat is improving, even if the actual weight isn't going down as much as I like. But, at some point, the lean muscle mass gains should start accelerating the fat loss. That's what I'm really hoping will happen here.


Food:

5/21/10 - Front Squats on the minute for 10 minutes

248.4

WOD:
5 Thrusters on the minute for 10 minutes
If you don't make it to five, you try to stick to 4, 3, etc. the rest of the way through. 
I subbed Front Squats since I was getting that shoulder thing again.

Probably shouldn't have worked out tonight. Tomorrow is a rest day for sure. 

Food:
Yogurt mix
Salad Bar
Chili
Diablo
Pizza
multiple drinks

5/20/10 - Rowing and Power Snatches

247.4

WOD:
Rowing
2 X 500m warmup
Rowing Sprints: 500m, 400m, 300m, 200m, 100m
Gave myself roughly 1 minute between sets but would have been better with an actual timer

Power Snatches
30 reps #95
5:44

On 4/29/10, 2 1/2 or 3 weeks ago, I did 50 snatches (#65) in 9:20. One thing I didn't record was my effort level, but I'm pretty sure it was at least 70% effort that day. I can probably do Randy any time now with a sub 8-minute time. The goal now is Isabel, which is a fairly significant goal since I can't even snatch 135 yet. But, I should get 135 in the next heavy snatch workout sometime next week, or even tomorrow.

I'm convinced at this point that the power snatch is the best exercise. I'm sure the workouts I've been doing with it have helped immensely with the progress I've made in the last few weeks. The burpees yesterday were a real eye opener to how far I've come. I also shouldn't forget the stretching we've been doing. Increased flexibility was a big help as well. Oddly enough, one additional factor that may have helped is the bench press work I've been doing the last few Saturdays.

Food:
Yogurt mix
Salad Bar
Grande Latte
Snapper (fried in butter and ate too much)
Veggie Mix (corn, green beans, and carrots)

5/19/10 - The Grinder - 70 Burpees, 60 situps...

248.4

WOD:

70 Burpees

60 situps

50 Kettlebell Swings (44 lbs)

40 Pullups (blue and red bands)

30 HSPU (Sub Pike Pushups)

23:44

Note: need to start working with the 53 pound kettlebell. This alone will save me at least a minute on my time with the 44 pounder. Overall, there is tons of room to improve on this workout. Sub-20 minutes shouldn't be any problem at all. Sub-18 is probably a more realistic goal.

Food:

Yogurt, walnuts, blueberries

Grande Latte

Large Salad

Fillet of Snapper

Frozen Veggies

5/18/10 - "Annie" and "Grace"

246.4

WOD:

"Annie"

50-40-30-20-10

Double Unders (x3 for single skips)

Sit-Ups

11:53

I need to start getting the hang of double unders.  Not a horrible time for me, but would have liked to do better.

 

Bonus:

"Grace"

30 Clean & Jerks (#135)

9:44

Surprised that Scott had us do Grace so soon after yesterday's WOD. I had been thinking to myself that I wanted to try it, but not until Friday at the earliest. I started off at #135 but it was just too darn heavy, so I regressed to #115, which was a lot easier.

Now that my shoulder seems improved, I want to start doing regular shoulder work every week. A couple of heavy clean & jerk workouts would be good before trying this again. Maybe Friday Scott will let me do heavy C & J sets. That will be the first one. Then try and get two more in before trying "Grace" again. Goal is to do it at RX in under 8 minutes. That might be too lofty for now.

Food: 

Carnitas, 2 tortillas, Rice, beans & assorted toppings

cup of gumbo

1 Fish Taco

1 cup of coffee 

Salad - beef, lettuce, onion, tomato, cilantro

decaf latte, tall, 1% milk

cottage cheese (4 Tablespoons), blueberries, honey, jam

Large apple

5/17/10 - Power Cleans, Clean & Jerks, Box Jumps

248.0

WOD:

Power Cleans 5 X 3

95/115/135/145/145

then:

5 Clean & Jerks (#135 - RX)

30 Box Jumps

x6 for time

26:44

Note: it's possible a few of the box jumps didn't get done. I wanted to do the heavier weight though, so I'm fine with it.

Food:

Grande Latte (200)

Soup (300)

Salad (350)

Big piece of snapper (500)

Brocolli and Cauliflower (150)

Yogurt walnuts blueberries (200)

Grande Latte (200)

5/16/10 - Bench Press and Back Squats

249.0

Workout:

Bench Press 5, 5, 3, 3, 3
175/185/190/195/200
(Also did 2 X 5 warmup sets at 155 and 165)

Back Squats 5, 5, 5, 3, 3
155/165/175/185/195

Started lower in weight to try and get better ROM. This worked, but then ROM started suffering at 175. Maybe need to some workouts at 135 or so and really concentrate on getting the butt down.

Really not too happy with my squat overall. Although I suspect I can probably max at 210 or 215 right now, it doesn't seem like loads at 180 - 195 are getting any easier. I'm halfway tempted to a do a leg press workout.

5/15/10 - Rest Day

249.0

This was a rest day. Didn't do much, didn't eat especially well, but not horribly. Needed the rest day, especially after all the endurance stuff we did this last week as well as the clean and snatch work I did on thursday and then the shoulder work on Friday.

5/14/10 - "Eva", Strict Press, Push Press

249.2

WOD:

"Eva"

Five rounds for time of:

Run 800 meters

2 pood Kettlebell swing, 30 reps

30 Pull-ups

I did a scaled version of this, which was:

Five rounds for time of:

Run 600 meters

20 Kettlebell swings, 44 pounds

20 Pullups (blue and red bands)

time: 39:03

Extra Credit: Strict Press and Push Press

2 X 5 Strict Press #115

3 X 5 Push Press #125

Not 100% sure of those weights. This is what happens when you don't record this stuff right away.

5/13/10 - Power Cleans and Power Snatches (heavy)

247.6

WOD:
Power Cleans 5 X 5
Power Snatches 5 X 5
Go heavy

Need to do a heavy shoulder press pretty soon.

Food:
Yogurt, blueberries, walnuts mix (300)
Big Salad (1000)
Latte (250)

5/12/10 - Wallballs, situps, deadlifts

248.0

WOD:
AMRAP 15 Minutes
12 Wallballs, 20/12
10 Weighted Situps, 45/25
12 Deadlifts, 225/135

I used the #12 medicine ball and lifted only #185, but that was a good decision. I made it through 4 2/3 reps, so I did 60 total deadlifts.

Food:
Yogurt, blueberries, walnuts, honey, jam (300)
Great big salad (900)
3 oz. salmon (150)
energy gel stuff (100)
2 Tacos (400)
Cottage Cheese w/blueberries, jam (200)
Apple (60)

Total: 2110 (Salad count is a total WAG)

According to this page right here, I can consume 3,084.3 calories per day and maintain my current weight. Even with these wild-ass guesses, I should be well under that. It would be nice to get under 245 sometime next week and then hit 243 the week after. Two pounds per week is a good goal. Getting under 240 will be a good milestone for me.

5/11/10 - 4 X 800m run became a Rest Day

247.2

WOD:
4 X 800m
3 minute rest between sets

I will very likely skip this WOD. We'll see how I feel, but I definitely should have taken yesterday as a rest day. I don't want to take Thursday as rest, so it has to be either today or tomorrow.

Thursday will be heavy load Power Cleans and Power Snatches - 5 X 5 each.

Update: skipped the WOD and totally fine with it.

Food:
Yogurt, blueberries, honey, jam, walnuts
Banana
Grande Latte
Big Salad - turkey and ham chunks
Sausage Chili
Diablo
1 Drink

5/10/10 - Scott's BDay WOD

249.6

WOD
16 Muscle-ups
32 Burpees
32 Double Unders
32 Push Press/Push Jerk, #75/45
32 Double Unders
32 Squat Cleans, #75/45
32 Double Unders
32 Snatches, #75/45
32 Double Unders
32 Push-ups
16 Muscle-ups

~39 minutes

Food:
Real good during the day and then cheated some at night.

5/9/10 - Rest Day

251.4

Rest day - not working out at all.

Food:
Two Fish Tacos
Ice Latte

5/8/10 - Bench Press

251.4

Workout:
Bench Press 5 X 5 - 175/180/185/185/185
Deadlift 1 X 5 #265
Triceps machine 5 X 10 at #180
30 muscle snatches at #45
10 squats at #65
3 sets of bicep curls - various weights
10 thrusters at #45

The intention yesterday was to work on Bench Press and Deadlifts. I'm super-happy about my progress on the bench press. I know it isn't a core CF movement, but I think it will help quite a bit with personal appearance. The deads, on the other hand, I just really was not feeling. This might have something to do with the C & J's the day before. I kind of feel like the way to go might have been to lower the weight to something like #235 and done sets of 8 - 10 with a fixed amount of rest between sets.

When I go to LAF in the future, I need to try and hit the various dip assist machines. It would be nice to start doing muscle ups and ring dips sometime in the fall and right now, I don't have anywhere near the tricep strength to make that happen.

5/7/10 - Clean & Jerks + 400m run

252.0

WOD:
15 Clean and Jerks (#95)
400m Run
AMRAP 20 Minutes

Goal: 5 rounds
Result: 3 1/2 (got through 13 c & J's before running out of time)

Good news is that I was able to use the RX of #95 for this WOD. This is another one that will be interesting to benchmark and do again in August or September.

Food:
Yogurt, blueberries and walnuts
Salad - greens + meat + dressing
Flank steak
Meat Calzone
drinks

5/6/10 - Rest Day

250.2

Rest day. Took today off and planning to take either Saturday or Sunday off as well. Two rest days each week minimum.

Food:
Yogurt Blueberry walnut mix
Salad with meat and cheese
Skirt steak burrito (rice & beans included)
Corned Beef

5/5/10 - Push Jerk and Box Squats and something extra

250.4

WOD:
Push Jerk 5 X 5 #115
Box Squats (Front) 5 X 3 #155 (note: I did one set at 165 but then regressed because I wasn't doing it properly)

Extra Credit:
30 Pike Pushups
40 Pullups
50 Kettlebell Swings (#44)
60 Situps
70 Burpees

Time: 27:13

This was a WOD from the mainsite sometime in the last two weeks or so. Scott did it and just kind of threw it out there for whoever wanted to do it. Anthony basically goaded me into it.

Food:
Yogurt with Blueberries, walnuts, and honey
Two Fish Tacos
Tall Latte w/ 2% milk
Dick's Deluxe
Beer
1 Shot
Some Brownies

5/4/10 - Overhead Walk

251.0

WOD:
Five rounds for time of:
50 Double unders
35 Knees to elbows
155 pound Overhead walk, 20 yards

Loads for each round:

Rd 1: 135
Rd 2: 135
Rd 3: 135
Rd 4: 155
Rd 5: 155

Time: 29:59


Food:
Yogurt, Blackberries, Blueberries, and walnuts
1 slice of pizza
Corned Beef Sandwich
Cabbage w/Bacon and Sausage
Ice Cream
Peanut Butter Toast

5/3/10 - Hang Cleans and Burpees

251.0

WOD:
15 Hang Cleans
15 Burpees
3 Rounds for time
10:44 at #105 (RX #135)

Extra Credit: 1K row

Food:
Two Fish Tacos
Grande Latte
Cottage cheese w/blackberries, blueberries, walnuts, and honey
Bowl of Chili

5/2/10 - Deadlifts and Bench Press

251.0

Workout:
Bench Press 6 X 5
155/165/170/170/170/170

Deadlifts 5 X 5
245/265/275/280/280
(also did 3 X 5 warmup at 170/195/215)

This is a pretty good combo for Sundays - upper body and lower body.

In order this is what I need to work on:

Overhead Press, Push Press, or Push Jerk
Power Snatches (heavy and light)
Shrugs and Scarecrows
Power Cleans or Hang Cleans
Back Squats

Cleans and squats are low on the list due to last Thursday and Friday's workouts. But, Back Squats will jump up in priority on Tuesday.

5/1/10 - Rest Day

252.0

Weird how my weight sometimes fluctuates so much one day to the next. Anyway, today was a rest day. I went to CF in the morning to sign up for the "Looking Better Naked" challenge and get my "before" pictures taken but I purposely did not work out because I know that need to get my rest days in and I want to do some strength work tomorrow (Deadlifts, Bench Press, Inverse Rows).

Also, I have an idea for a week long mini-routine. Don't know if this would ever happen, but it might be interesting.

10 Thrusters
10 Pullups
10 Burpees
10 Box Jumps
10 Pushups
+ Daily Ab Routine

Someone like Scott could probably blow through this in about 90 seconds. Someone like me would take 4-5 minutes. But really, I wonder if there would be any benefits to something like this? I guess, in my head, the idea would be to overlay the daily WOD programming with something that hits almost every body part. But, a week's worth of WODs should come close to doing that anyway, so I don't know if it makes sense to do something like this.